You Can Help Unravel Google's Mysterious Niantic Project

Google is working on something, though no one is sure what it is

The Niantic Project is underway

Google's a large enough company that it's working on a lot of things at the same time. For a while, there was a focus on creating small relatively independent teams inside Google working on whatever they wanted to. This didn't work out so well for the Slide team, but it may be working for the Niantic Labs team.

The very fact that such a team even exists is rare, CEO Larry Page was very clear on his goal to focus everyone's attention on a few key areas.

Niantic Labs is made up of the Keyhole team, one of Google's early acquisitions which created what is now Google Earth as well as several Maps features.

Now though, their attention is turned to something else, though not completely unrelated to the team's past.

A couple of months ago, the team released Field Trip, an augmented reality app that provided info about places nearby.

The app was pretty well received, but they're now up to something a lot more mysterious. The Niantic Project website offers some clues to a big conspiracy.

It could very well be a complicated viral campaign for an upcoming app or the ARG, alternate reality game, could be the product.

Clues have started coming in since the start of November and more land each day, so if you're interested to see where this is going, there's still time to get involved in the early stages.

Some spoilsports are all concerned about how this is some big marketing campaign and how, obviously, if a product needs a campaign like this, it can't be any good.

Meanwhile, others are getting in on the game and trying to piece it together. There are photos, videos and some "documents" available for now and more will surface in time. We'll find out soon enough what it's all about.